Hi all — sharing a free template for small businesses that get Google reviews but never find time to answer them.
Most workflow templates are fair-weather demos. This one is built for the day things go wrong:
- ✓ Automatic retries on the three calls that fail in real life — the AI drafting call, the email send, and the ledger write
- ✓ Idempotency guard — every review is checked against a ledger first, so the same review never generates a second draft, even if the workflow re-runs
- ✓ Nothing is ever posted automatically — there is no auto-post node in this workflow at all; every AI draft goes to the owner by email
- ✓ Setup lives on the canvas as sticky notes: connect three credentials (Gmail, Sheets, OpenAI), fill in one settings node, done
What it does: collects new Google reviews, has OpenAI draft a reply in your business’s tone (positive and critical reviews handled differently), and emails the draft to the owner. Approved drafts and their status are logged in a Google Sheet, so you always know which reviews are handled — and you stay the voice of your own business.
Template (free, official library): Draft Google review reply emails with Gmail, OpenAI, and Google Sheets | n8n workflow template
I’m the author — feedback genuinely welcome, especially from anyone who handles reviews for multiple locations: what would you want handled differently?